Friday, December 12, 2014

New Projects Underway and a Loss to Tau-Dar

I have not really been posting much on the non-tactics or non-battle elements of the game, but with ski season looming it gets more difficult to find time for games.  Having an entire basement available for games and hobbies helps though, and I always have paints out on the bar.

There is a lot (sort of) going to happen here at Defenders of Calth! 

I has no real knowledge of this until recently.  In the lore, the Blood Angels Chapter "actually" sent a company of their marines to assist the Ultramarines after hive fleet Behemoth had invaded the Ultramar system, and those Blood Angels remained there to learn as much as they could from the experience.  Regardless, I have access to an unfinished Blood Angels Army and am getting the new codex today!  Look for the Blood Angels 5th Company to share the scene with the Ultramarines 3rd Company soon!

Overall, I have the following projects getting underway:

1.  A gamer I met a few months back had a limited edition Ultramarines Captain still on the sprue from Games Workshop. I'm going to get the model assembled and painted - and look for it to be entered in the Fratris Salutem painting competition in the Spring.  I might have him represent a different company....

2.  I have a box of Centurions.  Now that it seems to be that the unit is not going to be included in the Blood Angels Codex, it is time for them to get built as 3rd Company Ultramarines.

3.  Attack Bike.  Ultramarines.  This will get me to three of them. On the other hand...maybe as a Blood Angel.  But that will mean getting more bikers to complete a squad of them.

4.  5th Company Blood Angels.  There is alot to do!  I'll probably create a 1500 point army list first and then start on what i need to get that table top ready.

Then there is the gaming itself:

1.  Winter 40K League...extends from January to March.

2.  COD....

As for what I have been up to...missed out on a few weeks of 40K due to other obligations.  I did get in to Crossroads for a game this past Wednesday.  It was vs Tau-Dar!

Maelstrom Mission #1, 1750 Points 
My opponent had something like:

Eldar CAD
Wraithknight with upgrades (as his warlord). Shooty.
2 units of jetbikers, each including a seer of each type (for a total of 4 psychers, 10 or 12 jet bikes total)
Wave serpent
Small unit of Guardians

Tau Allies
Commander in suit, marker drones, plasma loaded.
3 Heavy suits, more drones, missile and plasma loaded.
Fire warriors on foot, about 10.
Large Tau-Bot, plasma loaded

Having been a while, I only had brought a 1650 PyroTiggy list - which I upgraded to 1750 by swapping out two missile launchers for two heavy bolters and adding in two attack bikes.



Overall, it went all experimental for me.  Although I knew taking down the wave serpent and jetbikes would be very important, I decided to change my target priority to the heavy suits followed by the wraithknight.





My opponent had first turn, which he used to collect 4 points right off (first blood, 3 objectives).  My card draw was weak, so when I dropped in I got one point, but eliminated his heavy suits.  First bood was from using the wave serpent to eliminate my landspeeders with it's turret weapons and shield (no cover save....wow...).



On his next turn, he had another good draw, and the jetbikes scored him 3 more points, and I got nothing.  At that point I'd tried to shoot then assault his wraithknight, failing to cause a scratch while losing the sternguard sergeant.  My reinforcement pod went back into ongoing reserves after deviating 12 inches.  I scored nothing.  All the cards were for things I could not accomplish.

On turn 3, he shot down my stormtalon with some lucky Tau-bot dice rolls, and he eliminated my attack bikes and two rhinos.  He scored on two objectives and a d3 roll of 3 (card for killing units) for another 5 points, getting him to 12.  My reinforcement pod arrived, and the combined firepower of my two tactical squads failed to dent his wave serpent.  Tiggy and the two remaining sternguard failed a 3 inch charge on the Suit commander...I scored a d3 of 3 points for having a card that got me some objectives, taking me to 4 points. I had more cards that were useless.



We called it at the end of turn 3 with the score about 12-4 or so.  We might have continued, but I was bleeding off kill points and running out of ways to stop the jetbikes from just racking up more points.  My opponent thought he'd eliminate Tiggy and his bodyguards, and just wrack up more points in a gap I'd never close.  
 
Remember what I said a few posts ago?  Ignore the big stuff and kill the other stuff.  Or come with a list tailored to just kill big stuff...I'd done neither again, which meant the outcome was certain.

Until next time...

Ming

 
    


 
 








  
    

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